Automatic farm-gate.



A. BERRY.

AUTOMATIC FARM GATE.

APPLICATION FILED 111M124, I9l 6.

Patented Apr. 3, 1917'.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

A. BERRY.

AUTOMATIC FARM GAT E. APPLICATION FILED- JUNE 24, 1916'.

Patented Apr. 3, 191.7.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 @m PM.

Ema/Wm HRTH u R BERRY ARTHUR nnnnon SPRINGFIELD, rssonnr.

AUTOMATIC FARM-GATE.

Specificatioii of Letters latent.

Patented Apr. 3, 1917.

Application filed June 24, 1916. Serial N 0. 105,714.

To all whomc't mcy concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR BERRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Greene and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Farm- Gates, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates-to gates and particularly to mechanism for automatically opening and closing the gate upon the approach or recession of a vehicle. 7

The general object of my invention is the provision of a very simple and efiective mechanism to this end, so constructed that upon the approach of a vehicle toward a gate the gate will be first unlatched and then swung to open position but after the vehicle has passed through the gate the gate will be swung back to its closed position and again latched without the necessity of the driver of the vehicle getting down from the vehicle in order to open and close the gate.

A further object of the invention is to provide very simple meansto this end, so constructed that the parts will be automatically reset to their normal position after a vehicle has passed.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a vertical section through my improved gate, on the line 11 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the vgate;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the gate operating mechanism in sectionand the manner in which the mechanisms are actuated by a wagon after passing through the gate;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on the line of Fig. 3; v

Fig. 5 is a top plan View of one of the boxes containing the gate operating mechanism and the treadles 24 and 25;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary elevation of the latch post and the keeper;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentaryperspective view of the spring 42 showing its engagement with the wheel 25 Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the spiral pulley 39; and

Fig. 9 is a detail view of the lower end of the lever 27.

Referring to these figures, 10 designates the hinge post of the gate and 11 the latch post thereof. Mounted upon the latch post is the keeper 12 of any usual or suitable type, and mounted upon the post 10 is the gate 13 which, as illustrated, is rectangular 111 form and may be constructed in any suit able manner.

1 The gate is hinged by means of the vertical pintle or post 14 which is attached to. the gate inward of the rear end thereof and which projects above and below the gate. At-it's upper end this pintle 14 passes through .an eye 15 mounted upon a bracket 16 projecting from the post 10, while at its lower end the .pintle passes through an eye 17 mounted upon a bracket 18. The lower end of the pintle 14 rests in. a stepped bearing formed in the upper end of a shortblock or post 19 embedded in the ground just below the eye 17. Pivotally mounted upon a vertical member 20 is a latching bar 21 which extends to the forward end of the gateand projects beyond it and is adapted to engage. the keeper 12. The rear end of this latching bar 21 carries the pulley 22.

Disposed on each side of the gate and approximately in line with the hinge post 10 is a casing or box 23 which is about 5 feet long and a foot deep and about 16 inches wide, and disposed in. openings in the top of this box are the treadles 24 and 25. The

.treadle 24 is for the purpose of operating the latch bar 21, while the treadle 25 is for the purpose of rotating the gate upon its pintle. Disposed below the treadle 24 is a disk or wheel 26 which is rotatably mounted upon a shaft 26, and pivotally mounted upon this wheel 26 is a lever '27, the upper arm of which is connected by means of a link 28 to the treadle 24, while the'lower arm is slidably connected to a rod-29. The lower end of the lever 27 has an eye as illustrated in Fig. 9 through which the rod 29 passes, this rod :having a stop 29 at its extremity. This rod 29 extends toward the gate and is connected to a chain 30 passing upward between double pulleys 31 swiveled on the lower bar of the gate, and then passing over the pulley 22 and down again between the double pulleys and then laterally to the rod 29 of the opposite treadle 24. A depression of the treadle 24 will oscillate the lever 27 and pull upon the rod 29 and this will cause a depressi'onof the rear end of the latch bar 21 lifting the latch bar 20 from the keeper and releasing the gate.

The disk or wheel 26 is slotted as at32, and a pin 33 extends inward from the side of the box 23 and into this slot, thus limiting the rotation of the disk or wheel 25. The

treadle 25 is connected by means of an arm I 34 to a lever 35 which is pivoted at 36, and

from this lever extends a rod 37 which in turn is connected to a chain 38 which passes around a double cone pulley 39 which has a spiral rib upon its face which rib defines a spiral groove, around which groove the chain 38 passes. The chain passes around this groove, then extends laterally toward 1 ing into the loop 41 and at its other end expression of tending between pins 44 mounted upon the disk or wheel 25. Normally spring 45 tends to keep both of the treadles 24 and 25 in their raised positions but will permit a deeither treadle under the weight of a vehicle, and will also permit the depression of'both treadles at the same time.

The operation ofthe invention will be obvious from what has gone before. Assuming that the gate is closed with the latch bar 21 engagedwith the keeper 12, then upon a vehicle wheel striking a treadle 24 this treadle, will-be depressed. This depression will cause anoscillation of the lever 27 but not a rotation of the disk 25 asthe end of the slot 32 bears against the pin 33. The further depression of the treadle, further oscillates the lever 27 and this pulls upon the rod 29 and the chain 30, thus lifting the latch 21. Then as the carriage wheel reaches the treadle 25 this will be depressed, oscillating the lever 35, which draws upon the rod 37 and chain 38 so as to cause a rotation of the gate to its open position. It is to be noted that the weight of the wagon on both treadles 24 and 25 will cause the bowing downward of the spring 42 and that as soon as the wagon has passed the springs 23 (see Fig. 4) will cause the treadlesto rise to their normal position. The gate swings open away from the vehicle and the vehicle passes on through'the gate and then over the treadle 25on the outgoingside of the gate. This swings the gate closed. The depression of the treadle 25 on the outgoing side of the gate by the action of the spring lever 42 reverses the, wheel 26 as illustrated on the right hand side of Fig. 3 so that the pivot point of the lever 27 is carried farther toward the right hand end of the treadle box 7 which allows the lower end of the lever 27 to slip along the rod 29, which operates the of the treadle 24 when the wheel passes over it will not act to hold up the latch as the gate approaches its closed position. Therefore as the latch is not held up it will drop into the keeper.

The pulley 39 at the bottom of the gate is formed with a spiral groove and this pulley is larger at its middle than at its ends. As the gate opens and'the pulley revolves, the chain 38 travels around on the pulley and travels ofi of the large part of the pulley onto a smaller end thereof suflicient to give the chain slack enough to permit the lever 35 to move back without having any action on the opposite treadle. In the ordinary position of the gate, that is when the gate is closed the chain is wound about the middle of the pulley and therefore the slack is taken up. Turn buckles are preferably provided in the lengths of the rods 37 so as to adjust the rods so that the gate will be perfectly true and the treadles will properly operate.

It is obvious that the gate may be operated by the approach of a vehicle in either direction. Preferably, the boxes 23 will be disposed about 30 feet from the gate on each side thereof.

While I have illustrated certain details of construction which I believe to be of value, I do not wish to be limited to these as it is obvious that many changes might be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having described the invention, what I claim is:

1. The combination with a gate and a latching device therefor, of treadle operated means disposed on both sides of the gate for operating said latching device, treadle operated means disposed on both sides of the gate and between the gate and the latch operating treadles for rotating the gate, and means for shifting one of said latch operating treadles out of operative position upon the prior operation of the corresponding gate rotating treadle.

2. The combination with a hingedly mounted gate, a pivoted latch member thereon, and a gate post having a keeper, of a pair of treadles disposed one on each side of the gate and in line with each other, levers to which the treadles are operatively connected, said levers being operatively connected to each other and to the gate latch, a pair of gate swinging treadles disposed one on each side of the gate, levers to which said gate swinging treadles are connected, said levers being operatively connected to each other and to the gate, the gate swinging treadles being disposed inward of the latch operating treadles, and means whereby the depression of one gate swinging treadle will shift the latch operating treadle on the same side of the position.

3. The combination with a hingedly mounted gate, a pivoted latch member thereon, and a gate post having a keeper, of a pair of latch operating treadles disposed one on each side of the gate and in line with each other and operatively connected to the gate latch and to each other, a pair of gate swinging treadles disposed on each side of the gate and operatively connected to the gate and to each other, the gate swinging treadles disposed inward of the latch operating treadles, and means whereby the depression of one of said latch operating treadles and the successive depression of the two gate swinging treadles caused by the passage of a vehicle through the gate and over the treadles will shift the last latch operating treadle to be operated into an in operative position.

4-. The combination with a hingedly mounted gate, a pivoted latch member thereon, and a gate post having a keeper, of a pair of gate swinging treadles disposed one on each side of the gate and in line with gate into inoperative each other, levers connected to said treadles,

operative connections between the levers and the gate for causing a swinging ofthe gate in one direction or the other upon the depression of one or the other of the treadles, a pair of latch operating treadles, disposed one on each side of the gate outward of the gate swinging treadles, a shiftable member disposed below each latch operating treadle, a lever pivotally mounted upon the shiftable member for movement therewith and also movement independent thereof, links connecting the latch operating treadles to said levers, operative connections between said levers and the latch to cause the lifting of the latch upon a depression of certain of the treadles, and means operatively connecting each of the gate swinging treadles with the corresponding shiftable lever supporting member whereby a depression of the gate swinging treadle will act to shift said supporting member in a direction to raise the corresponding latch operating treadle to thereby release the latching member.

5. The combination with a hingedly mounted gate, a pivoted latch member thereon, and a gate post having a keeper, of a pair of gate swinging treadles disposed one on each side of the gate and in line with each other, levers connected to said treadles, operative connections between the levers and the-gate for causing a swinging of the gate in one direction or the other upon the depression of one or the other of the treadles,

pair of latch operating treadles disposed one on each side of the gate outward of the gate swinging treadles, a rotatable member mounted below each latch shifting treadle, a lever pivoted upon each rotatable member for movement therewith and independent movement with relation thereto, a link connecting each latch shifting treadle to one end of said lever, an operative connection from the other end of said lever to the latch, and a resilient lever operatively connected at one end to the corresponding gate swinging treadle and at its opposite end operatively connected to the corresponding rotatable member, the resiliency of said lever resiliently holding the rotatable member in a normal position, a depression of the gate swinging treadle acting to turn said resilient lever upon its fulcrum and shift the rotatable member in a direction to prevent the latch operating treadle from raising the latch.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ARTHUR BERRY. Witnesses:

NELLE RAMEY, F. L. GALBBAITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

